Stories:
Toward the Preservation of a Memory
March 20, 2006
Standing at the Great Wall in China in the freezing cold an hour or so outside of Beijing may or may not sound like your idea of fun. For Andrew Hosea it is part of a dream come true. "Never be afraid to follow your dreams" Andrew says. This spirit of adventure and willingness to pursue a dream, a trait that is very strong in Andrew, is part of an effort he put in motion over a year ago to pay tribute to his younger sister, Mary Beth, who passed away in October 2003 at the age of 33 after a 17 year battle with a brain tumor. Andrew has spent a great deal of time studying about China in his academic life and learned to speak Mandarin. And although his career with Federal Express keeps him somewhat grounded in Tennessee, he is not one to shy away from an opportunity to see new places and meet new people. This is evidenced in his trip to Nigeria with his best friend Noah Kehinde to see Noah's home town, Ataari, and his jaunts abroad to other exotic locales. So, what better place than China to brush up on his language skills and have another adventure with his father and best friend in tow. China is a long way from the Dentist office where Andrew just happened to pick up a copy of AARP Magazine and read an article about Kenneth E. Behring and the Wheelchair Foundation. Moved by what he had read, he jotted down the web address for the foundation and made his first $75 donation. Andrew admits that when he received his first presentation folder with a picture of the recipient of a wheelchair in it, he was hooked. He now has numerous reminders of the individuals he has helped receive wheelchairs around. "My Dad was somewhat skeptical about my wife Julia and me sending money to charities and asked 'how do you ever know, you know all this money you give away, ever gets to the individuals you want?'" "So when I got my first presentation folder with a picture of the man we'd helped get a wheelchair for, I said 'look Dad, here's an organization that provides that evidence, that proof. Kind of a record that you can keep and a thank you note from the Wheelchair Foundation as well." "It's rare when an organization actually sends you proof of the recipient of your generosity." Andrew's little sister, Mary Beth, would spend the last ten years of her life in a wheelchair as she dealt with her illness. And witnessing what she went through first hand and how important her wheelchair was to her daily existence, he easily understood how difficult life could be for someone who needed a wheelchair but did not own one. Andrew describes his sister as "strong" and "determined" and "always wanting to share a little bit of life, love, and light with others" and she did so through her paintings and artwork. She liked to surprise friends with gifts just to see them smile. Andrew likens this to what he read in the article about Ken Behring "only wanting a smile in return for the gift of a wheelchair." "And," Andrew would say, "She would have wanted others to just have a chance." And thus his journey to honor his little sister's legacy began. With the help of his family, friends, co-workers, and complete and total strangers, Andrew began collecting $21,000 to sponsor a container of wheelchairs to people in need. He set up an account to collect donations, and began raising funds. Noah and Andrew held the First Annual "Right for Mobility" Bowl-A-Thon. Andrew spoke at Churches and Youth Groups about his sister Mary Beth and his effort to send a container of wheelchairs to others in need. And Andrew and his Mom sold prints of Mary Beth's paintings with all proceeds from the sales going toward the container of wheelchairs. "I had a thermometer chart on the wall at my office, and every time we'd get more money we'd fill in a little more 'red space' to track our progress." "I must have driven Jeff Juri in the Wheelchair Foundation Accounting Department nuts calling him and asking for updates on our account accepting donations that went directly to the Foundation on behalf of Mary Beth" Andrew tells. And then one day, the thermometer topped out. The staff at Wheelchair Foundation suggested China as a good destination for Andrew's donation and the thought of it made him very happy. The process was set in motion to have a distribution ceremony in the city of Harbin on January 7th, 2006. Andrew made contact with Katherine Yan at Wheelchair Foundation China and made arrangements to attend the ceremony. Standing in the cold at the Great Wall was exciting, but not as exciting (or cold) as arriving in Harbin in the center of Manchuria. Andrew and his entourage were greeted by Officials from the Harbin Municipal Government, and Heilongjiang charity Federation who work closely with Wheelchair Foundation China to distribute wheelchairs to individuals in need. Andrew, his father and Noah were immediately taken out into the cold to see the Harbin Ice Festival. Truly one of the most spectacular exhibits of ice carving in the world, the Harbin Ice Festival draws visitors from all reaches of the globe and features life sized ice replicas of the Arc de Triomphe, Great Wall, Pyramids of Egypt, the Materhorn and Lhasa Buddhist Monastery, to name a few. The following Day Andrew, Dad and Noah were greeted by Katherine Yan who had traveled from Shanghai on behalf of Wheelchair Foundation China. Katherine, who is a veteran of numerous distributions, finally met the gentleman she had been corresponding with via e-mail on the other side of the planet. The distribution of wheelchairs was held at the Harbin Number 1 Senior People's Welfare House and in route Katherine informed Andrew that 350 people would be receiving wheelchairs because of their donation, rather than the 280 he initially had been told. It turns out that because Shanghai and Harbin are relatively close to one another, that low transportation cost allows Wheelchair Foundation China to provide wheelchairs for $60 each. (To learn more about donations to China please see -web link-). For Andrew this was unbelievable. Having worked so hard to raise the funds for 280 wheelchairs, and now finding out that the new number was 350 was like winning the lottery. All the better. Mary Beth would have been proud of Andrew that day. He addressed the crowd of assembled dignitaries, wheelchair recipients and their families and told them all about Mary Beth and his desire to make this donation in her honor. Each wheelchair was embroidered with three Chinese characters "Hope," "Love," and "Friendship" which Andrew explained to the crowd was a sentiment that embodied the spirit of his sister's life. Then he and the others made their way into the crowd an shook the hands of each wheelchair recipient. "It was really neat for us because we felt like we were really meeting a need for these people." Following the distribution ceremony they went to hand deliver a few wheelchairs to recipients who where homebound and unable to travel. Here Andrew again saw just how precious a wheelchair was to someone in need. "One woman had waited 40 years for her wheelchair, and when she saw the wheelchair she just started bawling!" Then we went to another ladies home. "She was in a car wreck with 11 other people six months earlier and had undergone several operations and was in need of a wheelchair." "It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, getting to see these individuals and see their families and hear their stories." "It was a trip of a life time, a dream, something that I have wanted to do. And how many people can say that they started out with a dream, and they were the one who thought of it and wanted to do it, and next (then) they accomplished it. That's something that I'm proud of, that's something that I'm glad that I took the opportunity to do to honor my sister. I'd encourage other people who have dreams to dream big and then start and take that first step and it takes a bunch of small steps to get a big dream completed, its not just one big leap. For more information about Andrew Hosea and the story of Mary Beth, please visit http://www.wheelchairfoundation.org/hosea/.
